average game length/duration?

Brightblade · November 7, 2002, 00:20

Hey all... great site, great forum, lots of info...

I'm a newb to CivIII, played a few games of Civ on my 486 back in the day, but nothing serious.

I was just curious, because games seem to be taking forever. I've never actually finished a game, I'm always starting over because I'm a newbie and constantly learning new tricks. Anyways.. back to my point... how long is your average game? How many hours/days/weeks do you spend on one game?

Thanks,

Brightblade

Theseus · November 7, 2002, 01:09

1st answer: Too many.

2nd answer: 5-30 hours per game (?).

3rd answer: Distracted by Apolyton.

4th answer: Not enough.

Keep doing what you're doing... learning the early game is key.

asleepathewheel · November 7, 2002, 01:27

now with PTW, you know exactly how long your game took!

I think my last victory was around 9 hours.
It was too early, via culture, I was in the process of softening up a continent for invasion.

My shortest game was 3 min 20 sec. elimination loss

vmxa1 · November 7, 2002, 01:36

1st answer: Too many.

2nd answer: 5-30 hours per game (?).

3rd answer: Distracted by Apolyton.

4th answer: Not enough.

I think I will just echo.

Theseus · November 7, 2002, 01:54

@vxma1: You should be on the Firaxis payroll.

BTW, have we determined who were the PTW playtesters?

asleepathewheel · November 7, 2002, 02:08

Quote:

Originally posted by Theseus
@vxma1: You should be on the Firaxis payroll.

BTW, have we determined who were the PTW playtesters?

I know of at least three.....but they are pretty obvious...

Apolex · November 7, 2002, 03:39

I usually start a game and end up finishing it 2-3 weeks later. That's playing an hour or two every now and then while trying not to get 'absorbed' into it like I tend to do. I set a timer and play for an hour, then I have to be productive for an hour (produce real life shields!) before I can play again. I would agree with Theseus: most games for me run a total of about 30 hours. But I usually play the HUGE world with max civs on diety, so it takes a lot more effort/time/thinking during the game.

-Apolex

Demerzel · November 7, 2002, 03:44

I often play a game quite often until I get to the modern era when I'm having to deal with worrying about hundreds of cavalry/tanks or modern armour on attack and infantry/MIs on defence. When I get to that point I normally take a break then find when I come back I can't handle the hassle of dealing with it all for more than a turn or two before I quit the game again. Which normally results in me never finishing most games before starting again.

vmxa1 · November 7, 2002, 04:42

Ok a serious answer. I would say a std map with dominate and conquest takes 35 hrs. At times I will play from the time I get up till I go to bed and finish in two days, depending on distractions. Larger maps will elongate that and additional victory conditions will shorten it. Lately I have been less inclined to play straight through and will jump to other games. I tend to finish games, except for the first few days of PTW. For it I wanted to look at the different civs and played the first age only.

georges bonbon · November 7, 2002, 05:21

As I always play on huge maps, my average must be 60 hours.

Even then I have a lot of open games where I am the virtual winner but where the AI has not yet declared me the winner.

lateralis · November 7, 2002, 06:15

I'm actually playing my first emperor game tonight (this morning?

) I started at like 4 this afternoon and just stopped at 4:13 AM because my fiance came and yelled at me to go to sleep.

So that's 12 hours right there. I'm in mid=1700s, I've wiped out everyone but the frech, (who are currently building the last 2 available wonders) and I'm gearing up to teach them a lesson. However, depending on how patient I am, these late wars can take several hours themselves. I would say an average of ~ 16 hours for a solid game.

Lateralis

BTW, it's been my experience that a builder style game can go WWAAAYYYY faster than a heavy warmongering game. Less time spend strategizing the movement of hundreds of chess pieces.

Firebird · November 7, 2002, 06:48

Quote:

Originally posted by Theseus
1st answer: Too many.

2nd answer: 5-30 hours per game (?).

3rd answer: Distracted by Apolyton.

4th answer: Not enough.

Keep doing what you're doing... learning the early game is key.

Like vmxa1 I'm on that train.

anarres · November 7, 2002, 08:27

I seem to be the odd one out. I take 50+ hours per game.

I suppose I'm too much of a control freak...

Alex · November 7, 2002, 10:23

Huge maps: more than 30 hours, easily.

Small maps: 7-8 hours average.

Wife at home: 25 minutes, then she noticed what I was doing.

bongo · November 8, 2002, 10:52

Hm, I bought the game in february(?) and I am playing my 7th og 8th game now. Spend 10-40 hours on each. I've won only once, most of the time I get bored when I'm know I'm winning anyway.

Got a new girlfriend in march, if it weren't for her I would have played 3-5times more.

planetfall · November 8, 2002, 17:01

Is this an echo or what?

I only play standard size maps. It usually takes me 20-35 hrs for a game. Usually only play in evening after work and family. So that works out to about 2 games in 3 weeks.

Accelerated production is supposed to cut game time in half, but most posters say that messes up the game too much.

For a shorter game, sometimes I play a variation of my own games. I'll sometimes stop a game at an era break point and backup to previously saved version and see if I can do better replaying to current year. {Never go back to 4000bc, too tedious.} For example, may go from 300ad to 2000bc, or 1700ad to 1300ad and replay. This is both short and interesting to see how more effectively can play.

No one has the ability to sit down and play game from start to end unless not building anything. It does take some time to get used to the fact that games take time. Automation does not help because the play style will be too different from yours.

-- PF

The Puny Celt · November 8, 2002, 18:13

I take 3-4 weeks to play a game because I set myself a time limit of no more than 3 hours at one time. Usually I play in 1 or 2 hour blocks. Not only does that mean I don't spend whole weekends in front of a PC, but I think it helps me play a better game. (Some of my best strategies come to me not when I'm playing but when I've taken a break and am doing something else)

sgrig · November 10, 2002, 10:09

Well, some of my games takes literally months to finish! Sometimes I play Civ3 not very regularly so the game my drag on for ages. I believe my fastest game ever took at least 2 weeks.

The Pioneer · November 11, 2002, 03:26

Well, I have never really finished a Civ 3 game in one sitting. Gone are the days when I played Civ 1, 2 or Colonization when I could actually stay up for more than 24 hours straight playing a computer game. Now days one game will take at least a week with at least 3-4 hours of playing time per day. It depends on how many wars I have to fight towards the end of the game.

So long....

PS: I should go back to school in order to free up my time so I can play more.

lateralis · November 11, 2002, 03:44

Quote:

For a shorter game, sometimes I play a variation of my own games.

I do this to, but in a slightly different way. I often come to a point (usually around industrialization) where I have to decide which victory to go for. There is often a possible war I could get into if I want. So I save the game with a name like "china war or build indust.SAV" I will then restart from that point going for variously different strategies. Sometimes I really wanna teach the world a lesson, other times I wanna see if I can beat them to a launch. Anyone else like that?

lateralis

planetfall · November 11, 2002, 11:23

Yes and no.

No I don't play for alternative win methods.

Yes, I save my game at least every 5 turns until finish it. I annotate key decision points. Sometimes I will go back and replay just to see what difference it makes. For example in current game forgot that Internet was a GW and not a SW. I used my second leader for an army. Opps, really, really tempted to go back 5 turns and use GL for Internet and then see how much of a difference the bump in literacy give you in game play.

Lately it is rare I don't go back and replay some turns. I am pushing difficulty levels and find it easy to make "mistakes" I realize 5-10 turns too late.

To keep my games straight I use this naming convention:

First play of game.
Year-b( if bc)-KeyEvent

Second play of game
b-Year-b/a-KeyEvent

Third play
c-Year-b/a-KeyEvent.

And so forth. Sometimes I use the A for AD and sometimes just leave blank. The most variations I have ever played was "f", i.e., 6 times of the same game.

Since I try to gauge the strength of the various variations, I have renamed the default city names. Each civ now has 25 cities in city name list. {Original has between 35 and 18}. Each city's name is preceeded by a two digit number. So Cairo becomes 01Cairo and Rome becomes 01Rome.
Now when I view the alternative civ's number of cities I just look for the largest number and don't have to count their cities.

-- PF

JamesDS · November 11, 2002, 17:20

It takes me about 2-4 weeks with a couple of hours a day.

Master Marcus · November 11, 2002, 21:33

I play mostly on huge maps+16 civs, so 50 hours ( 3-4 weeks ). Occasionally tiny+4 civs, which takes 5-8 hours. I want to control every order and move, by the exception of workers when I have lots of them by mid-game then shift-A automated.

Explorer579 · November 12, 2002, 01:39

The larger the map the longer is the game. I play standard and below. Many times I play tiny and manage by finishing a game in 8 hours by forbidding other civ access to iron.

The easier the difficulty level the faster the game. I was teaching a person civ3 yesterday, and I finished a game (tiny map, easy level) in 40 minutes by wiping everybody off the map! I have not played diety in civ3 but these could be fast too if the AI finishes me off too early! I play Regent and the level after it! My comments below apply to these levels.

A game takes me a week, about 12 hours, usually 4 sessions of 3 hours each. Recently more like 6 sessions of 2 hours each. Except weekends when sessions could be longer. I NEVER go beyound the year 1900 because each turn would be time consuming then on standard maps (I don't put my works on automation because the AI messes up my strategy, unless it was an island where workers can do much mess up to my strategy). Besides, I am a romantic historian and like to play old units and not modern ones (20th century on) ....

I bought PTW and installed the 1.04 patche, and I have yet to paly an Internet game though I went to the Internet forum about 10 times. It is ridiculous. I play PTW and enjoy the new civs though they are not much difference considering you could have got some MOds of civ3 that are similar to the new ones on PTW. But considering that I make good money in real life, if I pay $30 to play a game about 1000 hours, that is like paying 3 cents per hour! Not a bad deal if you make your own money.

Mad Bomber · November 18, 2002, 12:53

Play on Huge Maps:

The more civ's there are the longer it takes

If I play 6-8 civ's then it will usually take 65-70 hours (about 2 weeks)
8-12 civs will take me 75-90 hours (2-1/2 -3 weeks)
12+ will take me in excess of 100 hours to play (over a month, many never end)

In my current game its 780 AD, I am researching Laser, and there are four civs that are tech parity with me with most of the rest slightly behind. There are 12 civs remaining and I can only win with a conquest victory. Have already played this game over 60 hours, and its not even half way over (Regent difficulty level)